This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, these statements are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is or is not prior art.
Graphene represents a thin layer of carbon made up of atomically arranged hexagonal lattice. Owing to its structure, it can efficiently conduct heat, electrical current, and it can be made to be translucent or nearly transparent, making it a desirable material for many applications including electronic applications and optoelectronic applications.
However, there remains issues with commercial production of graphene. This is particularly problematic when there is a need for a large area graphene film. One scalable process is based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) which is a process in which a carbon-containing precursor gas is decomposed at relatively high temperatures into various reactive carbon species, which can then be deposited on a substrate in order to grow a film of graphene. In a typical graphene deposition CVD process, the precursor gas is heated to about 1000° C. to allow for the decomposition of the precursor gas. Such high temperatures are not practical for a variety of substrates. For example, copper has been used as a substrate, with a melting point (1061° C.) just above the CVD temperature. However, such temperatures are wholly unsuitable for a variety of other desirable substrates. A limiting issue with CVD is that only catalyst substrate can be used for graphene growth, since the catalyst substrate plays a role in carbon precursor decomposition, thereby limiting choices for such substrates.
While others have used plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) to lower deposition temperature, the lattice structure of graphene that is grown or deposited has not been optimized for specific applications.
Therefore, there is an unmet need for a novel approach to deposit or grow graphene with controllable lattice sizes on various substrates at low temperatures.